For many swimmers, swimming in turbulent waters is not an altogether enjoyable experience. Surface disturbances of the water require the swimmer to position his head higher than normal for a breath of air in order to avoid inhaling water. This, in turn, causes the swimmer's feet to be situated deeper in the water. The end result is that the swimmer assumes an attitude which causes him or her to quickly tire. If the swimmer is just learning to swim, surface disturbances can impede progress in learning because of the swimmer's attempts to avoid getting water in the nose or mouth. Moreover, reducing waves and other surface disturbances in a pool also reduces the amount of water lost from the pool by splashing over its coping or edge.
Presently, one method of dissipating surface disturbances in pools includes the use of a drain gutter. Drain gutters usually have a vertically disposed lip that circumscribes the water in the pool, at the surface level. Wave action and other surface disturbances, generated by people in the pool, are reduced by extracting energy from the wave impinging upon the gutter when the wave breaks over the gutter lip and into the gutter. If the wave is sufficiently small, so that it does not fill the gutter, the whole of the energy in the wave is absorbed or trapped by the gutter itself. However, if the wave is sufficiently large, the secondary waves (e.g., waves that are reflected after impinging upon the coping wall) will re-enter the pool but only after undergoing a further energy loss due to reflection from the coping wall and overcoming the gutter lip to re-enter the pool.
It has been found that wave gutters are most effective when the uppermost location of the edge of the gutter lip is substantially at the water level of the pool. Wave dissipation efficiency of the gutter lip decreases when water levels are set above or below this edge. Accordingly, many of the larger or olympic-sized pools, built especially for racing, usually combine such wave gutters with extra large pumping apparatus and plumbing arrangements in order to adjust the water level within the gutter rapidly for optimum wave reduction by the gutters. Unfortunately, such wave control is very expensive and, therefore, usually omitted from modern home and club pools in favor of a much smaller and less expensive drain system that is also used for trapping leaves and other floating debris.
It is believed that efficient wave reduction does not depend to any great extent upon the profile and dimensions of the gutter. Rather, the single common denominator among competition pools using such wave gutters effectively has been the presence of a rigid water-confronting lip and the positioning of the uppermost edge of the lip at the waterline. Thus, variations in gutter profile, from square, rectangular, to curved in varying degree, as well as variations in gutter height and depth are not necessarily the main criteria for wave gutter design.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to providing a wave gutter that automatically adjusts itself to maintain an optimum position for wave damping and control of other surface disturbances. The invention includes a relatively stiff, elongate wall member that is hingedly attached to the sidewall of a pool. The wall member pivots about a horizontal axis that is substantially parallel to the side of the pool. The wall member is fabricated so as to be buoyant in water. This buoyancy, together with the wall member's hinged attachment to the sidewall of a pool, allows the gutter of the present invention to maintain an attitude for optimum control of surface disturbances in the pool; that is, with the unhinged longitudinal edge situated proximate the waterline. If desired, the unhinged longitudinal edge may be provided with a tripping lip that adds to the invention's capability for damping surface disturbances.
In the embodiment disclosed, the wave gutter of the present invention is constructed so that it may be removably mounted to the pool wall. Accordingly, mounting apparatus is provided which includes a pair of L-shaped straps, each configured to mount upon the coping of the pool and each having a depending leg that hangs down into the pool along the pool's wall surface. Each depending leg has attached thereto the eye portion of a hinge. Affixed to one longitudinal edge of the wall member of the present invention are hook elements that are adapted to be received by the eye portions mounted to the strap.
With the straps mounted to the coping and upper wall portions of the pool side, the wall member forms a wave gutter that automatically adjusts to the surface of the water contained in the pool.
A number of advantages are achieved by the invention disclosed herein. For example, minor variations of the water level do not substantially detract from the efficiency of the invention to suppress surface disturbances created in the pool. The capability of adjusting automatically to water level variations due to evaporation and the like allow the wave gutter of the present invention to maintain a position for optimum efficiency. One longitudinal edge of the wall member is maintained proximate and in confronting relation to the waterline due to the buoyancy of the member together with its hinged attachment to the pool.
Moreover, use of the present invention obviates the need for expensive and elaborate plumbing and pumping arrangements presently in use with larger pools for optimum wave reduction by fixed gutters, as described above.
In addition, as will be seen, the portability and variable length of this invention permits its use in small, irregularly-shaped home pools so popular today, as well as in the larger, rectangular pools built by schools, municipal facilities, and public and private clubs.